CrossEyed
by Lucky Tangelo
Summary: Life at Malfoy Manner gets a little more interesting with Miss Amelia Roach living there.  Takes place during the seventh book "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".
1. Chapter 1

It was cold and dark. There were almost a dozen black figures in cloaks standing around a terrified Blonde Teenager. They were huddled so closely together, they could have been conjoint. This became even more likely when they took down their hoods. They all had the same pale snakelike face. Every face shared the same maniacal expression. And when they spoke the mouths moved in unison. Avada Kedavra they hissed. The killing curse, the ultimate unforgivable sin, kills instantly.

Suddenly his flesh began to rot. He looked down at his graying skin and saw hair falling to the ground below him. The earth appeared to be swallowing him. Within seconds he was drowning in a sea of dirt and maggots. Eating his skin and getting into every Orifice. He fell through the dirt into a jar in the potions class at Hogwarts. Everyone was looking at him. Snape, the potions professor picked up his jar.

"Everyone step up to the front of the class and collect your essence of Draco Malfoy" Snape called in a very uninterested tone. Each student took a small piece of his rotten grey flesh and added it to their cauldron.

"Draco!" He woke up in a cold sweat his heart was pounding. He searched around for the source of the voice. His mother was sitting on the side of his bed looking extremely worried. "You were having Nightmares again, weren't you?"

"Not really, it was just a stupid dream." He assured her.

"Oh, what was it about?" She asked.

"Nothing!" Draco flushed red remembering Pansy Parkinson, a girl from Slytherin house, taking his grey and wrinkled testicles from the Jar. "Actually, I can't remember it." He lied. His mother flew him a disbelieving look and told him to get dressed for breakfast. He dressed himself in a black turtle neck, dress pants, and a suit jacket. He combed his hair neatly parting it to one side subconsciously checking to see whether clumps of it were falling into the sink.

Once he was perfectly sure he was not still in a dream and he wasn't going to be served any of his own body parts for breakfast, he headed downstairs. In the dining room his nostrils filled with the smell of sausages, French-toast, and kippers. He completely forgot about his dream and sat down with his family. "Wait for our guests, Draco" His mother demanded. Draco put down his fork and waited patiently. He didn't question his mother who they'd be having over as he was quite used to unexpected guests. Sometimes people he never knew. After all Voldemort, the most powerful dark wizard alive, had recently moved into Malfoy Manner. Voldemort was always recruiting new followers, he called his death eaters. These weren't often the most pleasant people nor did they make great house guests and some of his death eaters practically lived there. And three of them did live there. He had to admit that he, his father and mother were also death eaters. And no matter how much he forced himself to believe it was an honor to have lord Voldemort living with them he still knew it was punishment.

"Hello, Lucius, Narsicca." said a soft voice, startling the family out of their seats. Voldemort, immediately recognizable by his snake like face, was entering with one of his most loyal servants, Worm-tail, a dirty rat-like man.

"M... my, lord" Draco's father said with a bow. "Draco, pull out a chair for our guest." Draco obeyed, though reluctantly. Lord Voldemort sat at the head of the table in a rather throne like chair.

"Our Guests will be arriving soon Lucius, we'll need more chairs" With one quick flick of his wand the table expanded and two more chairs appeared. Draco counted the number of empty places with his eyes, three. Moments later footsteps could be heard behind the door. Everyone turned to the door excluding Voldemort. Draco recognized a man as Fenrir Greyback, a Servant of the dark lord and a werewolf. Fenrir made eye contact with Draco and he flinched. The Werewolf smirked and he turned to the terrified couple walking through the door behind him. He gestured them to go forward.

"Please, take a seat" Shivers went down the couples spines when lord Voldemort spoke. "But someone is missing" the couple who were halfway between standing and sitting froze. "Mr. Roach where is your daughter? We saved her a seat." A horrifying grin shone across his face. "Never mind that Mr. and Mrs. Roach sat down and exchanged nervous glances. "Don't worry; she'll be arriving quite soon. It was a mistake for you to register her as an Animagus."

"W.. whatever do you mean... My lord." She added with a slight bow.

"Surely you didn't think it was YOU I wanted, did you?"

"Well" But Mrs. Roach was cut off.

"You practically a Squib and your husband fired from the Ministry. You re lucky I allowed you to sit at the same table as me." Mr. Roach stood up, appalled at this insult but before he could retort there was a green flash and the sound of a woman screaming. Mr. Roach was lying motionless on the floor. Tears streamed down his wife s face and she knelt down beside him. The Malfoys stared blankly in front of themselves, not daring to look at Mrs. Roach or Voldemort but Greyback, who had been standing in the corner, started to laugh. Even lord Voldemort looked as though he was trying to hold back a snigger, his red eyes turning into slits. Voldemort stood up straight and started to speak. Only it wasn't English he was speaking, from experience they knew he was speaking parseltongue. And soon enough they could hear the familiar slithering of Voldemort s snake Nigini entering the room Mrs. Roach was suddenly quiet. Nigini was moving towards her. She stood up and abandoned her husband to escape but the snake darted at her and bit her shoulder. There wasn t time for a scream to escape her. The Malfoys tried to act indifferent and stare at their laps holding back their disgust for the scene taking place behind them. Draco was sure he heard Greyback licking his lips. By the time Voldemort suggested that they eat their breakfast (though it was now close to lunch time) they had very little appetite.


	2. Chapter 2

After Breakfast Draco went up to his father s study. "Father, did you know the Roaches?"

"Yes, I knew Mr. Roach when he was working for the ministry. They're a pure blood family closely related to the Lovegoods. Mr. Roach was fired for breaking an entry into a ministry official s office. But he was probably just lost, thought it was his own office. Odd coincidence they both hide the spare keys under the potted plants next to their doors." It was obvious Lucius disliked this Mr. Roach. "I didn't know much about his wife. Just that she was always calling him home early to help her with magic that had gone wrong. I'm pretty sure their daughter doesn't go to school. But she must have been studying magic at home. I remember people talking about her when she registered as an Animagus, one of the youngest in a century. She might even be younger than you."

"Do you think you-know-who wants her to join the death eaters than?"

"No doubt he does. And probably with her parents now done away with she'll be staying here."

"What? Why does everyone have to stay here?" Draco hissed

"Well, our manner is quite large... it makes a good spot for headquarters and there are some people the dark lord would like to keep close." He lied also keeping down his voice. "Besides I'm sure Miss Roach is a very nice girl." He added reassuringly.

"She better be I don't want anymore" he lowered his voice further "ugly half-breeds, under this roof" His father obviously agreed but instead asked him not to speak so rudely of their guests and sent him out of his study. He didn't want to admit it but he was actually very eager to meet this young Miss Roach. Girls weren't often the first thing on his mind but today he spent a lot of time wondering what she would look like. Despite Voldemort s reassurance that she would be arriving soon, She wasn t brought to the Manner until later that evening

"We've got the girl!" Greyback could be heard yelling in the hall. "There s a bit of a problem though!" Draco crept down the stairs and saw Greyback attempting to remove Wormtail from the grasp of a great white python.

"That must be her he thought. He tried to imagine what she might look like considering that Wormtail who was a rat Animagus resembled a rat so much.

"Bring her in Wormtail." Voldemort's snake like whisper echoed through the hall. "At all costs he added. Fenrir Greyback gave up on saving Wormtail from the snake and ended up just pushing the pair of them through the hall. Once they were both out of sight Draco followed them sneakily to the door of Voldemort s quarters. The hall was dark except for the light shining through the crack in the door. Draco peered through and saw that Wormtail and the Python had been separated and the snake was now hanging from the chandelier. "She'd be easier to handle in human form, wouldn t you agree?"

"We tried to force her back but she's a tough one answered Fenrir.

"Well, did you try asking her?" Fenrir looked puzzled. "Perhaps I can persuade her to come to dinner with us, you may go now Greyback. I know you have rather eclectic tastes."

Fenrir bowed and turned towards the door. His eyes met Draco s. The boy panicked and turned around to escape but the werewolf reached out and caught him by the collar of his jacket. He pulled the trembling teenager into Voldemort s view and asked "hey, can I have him for dinner?" Draco was somehow paler than normal. He tried not to shake or make eye contact with the werewolf whose face was now so close to his he could smell his breath.

"No you may not Greyback." He demanded "as much as he deserves it for eavesdropping Fenrir let go of the boy s jacket reluctantly "Please make sure he goes straight to the dining room Greyback." The werewolf went to the top of the steps with Draco staring at him all the way with hungry eyes. Draco was still shaking with fear. At the top of the steps his family was waiting for him. He took a seat in-between his mother and her sister Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Where were you Draco?" His mother demanded.

"I was..."

"Shhh..." His Aunt issued. "The dark lord has arrived She seemed unpleasantly happy. Voldemort entered with the snake now obediently following behind him. It was obvious that she was under the imperius curse. Voldemort took the seat at the head of the table as usual.

"We have an important guest today" He gestured at the Python now slithering onto the table. He smiled and whispered something in parseltongue. The snake immediately turned into a young girl wearing a thin white night gown. She was rather thin and tall. She had platinum blonde hair down to her waist styled with a short fringe cut high above her eyebrows. She looked very dreamy with her eyes closed holding out her wand and placing it gently into Voldemort s hand. "Thank you dear" he added politely. She whispered something incomprehensible to him. Draco swore he was hearing parseltongue but couldn't be sure it wasn't an effect of the imperius curse. Suddenly a grin flushed across Voldemort s face and the curse was dropped. She opened her eyes and searched around the room in confusion. For a second she looked straight at Draco and he noticed she was slightly cross-eyed. He was reminded that she was closely related to the Lovegoods.

"Where am I?" She asked continuing to glance around the room. Her eyes finally met Voldemort s and she scattered over the table. She was about to make a run for it before Bellatrix stood up and pointed her wand at her.

"And WHERE do you think you re going!" She laughed. "Trying to run away, were you? Stupid girl, can t you see you re..." But she was cut off. Voldemort had stood and smiled at the frightened snake-like girl.

"It s quite understandable of course." His smile widened and Bellatrix lowered her wand "Is it true, are you really a parselmouth?" The girl stared at him with wide eyes for a moment and then nodded. Quiet gasps filled the room

"But, how did you..."

"You never mind that. Do you know, nearly all Parselmouths are decedents of Salazar Slytherin?" She was about to respond but before she could speak he added "Me included." Her mouth gaped open and her eyes widened. "I believe you may be distantly related to me."

"But aren t most pureblood wizards distantly related!" Bellatrix added sounding transparently jealous.

"Thank you Bellatrix" Voldemort was obviously waiting for this question. "Yes, most pureblood wizards are distantly related. But there are almost no known relatives of Slytherin. I m convinced that Miss Amelia Roach is one of them."

"And you killed her parents this morning..." Again she was cut off.

"Don t interrupt me Bellatrix He hissed. "As I was saying, I doubt she gets it from her father s side. He was in the ministry so we have information on him. However, very little is known about Mrs. Roach. This includes her maiden name. Her Mother was a squib" Voldemort smiled at Bellatrix and was pleased to see she was stumped. "Roach" Amelia, who seemed rather distant from the discussion despite being the topic of it, jolted upright on the table and stared at Voldemort. "You may take a seat." Her face suddenly flushed red. She had only noticed know that she was sitting on the table. And even worse, the only spare seat was near the head of the table a rather uncomfortable distance from Voldemort. 


End file.
